Residents protest against abusive SLA at Thikiliveddai, Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 August 2011, 11:17 GMT]Occupying Sri Lanka Army soldiers have assaulted protesting residents of Thikiliveddai village situated in Ea'raavoor division of Batticaloa district, on Saturday night. The assault followed the villagers protesting SLA attack on a resident, 35-year-old Ilayathamby Pulendran, a father of two. Thikiliveddai villagers are long oppressed and abused by the occupying SLA. Last year, when three SLA soldiers sexually abused a 9-year-old girl of the village, deputy minister in Rajapaksa regime and paramilitary leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan suppressed protests. The villagers now demand removal of the abusive SLA camp from their village. Meanwhile, public protests after SLA atrocities are reported widely from the Eastern Province in the recent days.

Tension prevailed at Thikiliveddai village during the weekend after occupying SL soldiers started assaulting the villagers protesting the attack on Pulendran.

In the meantime, SLA and STF personnel have been deployed heavily from Paa'ndiruppu to Kaaraitheevu in the East, following reports that attackers posing as ‘grease devils’ were targeting women.

‘Grease devil’ is kind of attack on women reported in the island in which the culprit comes after applying grease on his body so that he could not be caught.

The villagers of Thikiliveddai question how an occupying army committing genocide and sexual abuse could save them from attackers appearing as ‘grease devils’ and say that Sri Lankan media has made the phenomenon a suitable excuse for the occupying soldiers to use it against Tamil women.

Three SLA soldiers at Thikiliveddai SLA camp sexually abused the 9-year-old girl on 12 February 2010 when she was returning home from school. The soldiers stopped the girl, who was returning home with her classmate and gave her a chocolate, which made her unconscious. Later, the sexually abused girl returned home bleeding and was hospitalized.